Augustus inherited a monetary system in chaos after decades of civil war coinage struck by competing factions, each issuing gold to pay armies rather than govern an economy. His reform of the aureus — standardized at roughly 40 to the Roman pound — was inseparable from his broader restructuring of the aerarium and the establishment of his personal fiscus, blurring the line between imperial wealth and state treasury in ways Roman jurists would argue about for generations.
RIC I 536 places this issue within the Lugdunum series, the mint Augustus activated around 15 BC to supply the Rhine frontier armies directly.
Augustus inherited a monetary system in chaos after decades of civil war coinage struck by competing factions, each issuing gold to pay armies rather than govern an economy. His reform of the aureus — standardized at roughly 40 to the Roman pound — was inseparable from his broader restructuring of the aerarium and the establishment of his personal fiscus, blurring the line between imperial wealth and state treasury in ways Roman jurists would argue about for generations.
RIC I 536 places this issue within the Lugdunum series, the mint Augustus activated around 15 BC to supply the Rhine frontier armies directly.